إنتاج الفراغ : التقاليد البحثية العربية
C. Wright Mills called research traditions based on the worship of methodology abstracted empiricism, but in the Arab social sciences, this research type might better be called empty empiricism. It encompasses many models, including methodological deception, yet common to these models are rules akin to social rituals. In these studies, a second type of research tradition takes social norms as the criterion for studying social facts, in the manner of an expert, inspector, sheikh, union leader, or politician. Sometimes this is done directly, especially in Lebanon, and sometimes by means of deluding the role of social actors, as is common across the Arab countries. In other cases, these two types of research traditions overlap. The result, in all cases, is an analytical void in which no knowledge is produced-a void necessary for the dominance of the ideologies common in Arab countries. The predominance of these traditions means that analytical studies attempting real knowledge production are marginalized. Authors, journal reviewers, master's and doctoral dissertation supervisors, and conference organizers all participate in these traditions. University professors appear as the bearers and custodians of these traditions and transmit them to new generations of researchers and to universities across different countries. This book seeks to explain these traditions, and does so based on thousands of studies, including articles, theses, books and chapters, gathered from one of the fields of the social sciences (education). (Publisher's Abstract)